MMA Fighting - Reaction: Cain Velasquez Granted Bail at $1 Million In Attempted Murder Case

Episode Date: November 9, 2022

MMA Fighting's Damon Martin, Jed Meshew and Steven Marrocco react to news that former UFC heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez has been granted bail at $1 million in his attempted murder case. Follow Damon Martin on Twitter: @DamonMartin Follow Jed Meshew on Twitter: @JedKMeshew Follow Steven Marrocco on Twitter: @MMAFightingSM Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Follow on Twitter: http://goo.gl/nOATUI Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Support for this show comes from the Audible Original, the downloaded two, ghosts in the machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco Cudulian and the rest of the Phoenix colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer, but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever. Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprise his role as Rosco Cudulian in this follow-up to the Audible Original Blockbuster. The Downloaded, it's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking, What are you willing to lose to save the ones you love?

The Downloaded 2, Ghosts in the Machine. Available now, only from Audible. Support for this show comes from the Audible original, The Downloaded 2. Ghosts in the Machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco Cudullian and the rest of the Phoenix colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer, but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever.

Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprised his role as Rosco Cudulian in this follow-up to the audible original blockbuster, the downloaded. It's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking, what are you willing to lose to save the ones you love? The downloaded two, Ghosts in the Machine, available now, only from Audible. Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, this is MMAfighting.com's Jedmishu.

I'm here with Stephen Morocco and David Martin, both of MMAfighting.com, because we have got big breaking news as of less than an hour ago, former UFC heavyweight champion, Kane Velasquez, has been released on bail. It's been in jail for the last eight months. We're going to talk all about it, but we wanted to do a quick react pod to this pretty big development in his case. So before we hop right into it, I just want to say that Damon was watching the bail hearing all through the day.

He's got direct updates on exactly what happened. So I'll throw it to you right off the bat here, Damon. and talk us through exactly what transpired that ended up getting Kane Velasquez out of jail. So, yeah, the last two days have been a pretrial hearing where they were talking to mostly the cops that were involved at the scene after, you know, Kane was arrested. But then today they went through final motions and Kane's lawyer, Mark Garagos, had two motions. One was trying to get the premeditated attempted murder charge dismissed. That was denied. he will go to trial under the premeditated attempted murder charge along with nine other counts.

But the second motion was to grant bail. Now, bail had been denied four previous times by different judges on the case. But Judge Arthur Bocanegra decided to opt against the recommendation of the prosecution represented by Aaron French of the district attorney's office. And he basically said that after eight months, he's going to send, you know, Kane home. And he basically, you know, relayed a bunch of conditions, including GPS monitoring and home detention. He has to undergo CTE and traumatic brain injury at a wellness center treatment at a wellness center. He has to undergo counseling for parents of children who have suffered sexual abuse. He has to have no weapons in the home.

And he has to have a 300 yards, 300 yards away protective order away from the three victims in the case. Harry Galarte, who is the person accused of. of sexually molesting Kane's son and his parents or step-parent Paul Bender and his mother, Patricia Galarte. But as a result, $1 million later, Kane Velasquez will get a chance to go home and see his family for the first time in eight months. Yeah, it's a huge development. And we've already seen a pretty big outpouring of support from, or maybe not support,

just enthusiasm from Kane's friends in the M.A. community. Stephen, I want to go to you on this because you've been. following this case very closely for Mabiding.com. Going back, let's go back to kind of the initial pretrial. Because this is not the first time that they have asked for bail for Kane, basically citing very similar circumstances here. This one went through. Can you kind of refresh us on why the previous judges were not as inclined to accept

this argument from Garragos? Well, because basically they were able to convince the judge that he was, a clear and I think a French used the term clear and convincing threat in previous hearings and that was based on the facts of the case

as they were known at the time Garagos is obviously going to try to poke as many holes and is you know from what I read of what's been happening of what happened in the past two days he's already poking holes or laying a groundwork for a defense

here he's going to try to do that. And the state is going to argue that Kane is a clear and convincing threat, a danger to the public essentially, and that's why he shouldn't be released on bail. And given the facts on their face, there is, it's not too much of a stretch.

I'm obviously not a lawyer, but I would say it's not too much of a stretch to argue that he could be a dangerous of society or make that argument if he was going through crowded city streets, allegedly, and firing a pistol into Mr. Bender's car, or Mr. Galarte's truck. So I'm, I'm surprised that the tone changed or that after four times that they were able to get it done on this, on this, on this fifth one, but clearly I think that's kind of my question to Damon, actually, if I can sort of throw it to him.

Like, what was the change that you sensed or was there any circumstance that was present in the court room or any argument that worked in particular to sway things the way they went today? I think what it ultimately came down to was the judge believing that, you know, I mean, he basically said in his statement, I don't believe that Mr. Velasquez is a flight risk. and I believe that Mr. Velasquez wants to be reunited with his son who has been traumatized. I think there was a lot of sympathy there for that. I don't think anyone is disputing. Obviously,

of course, Harry Galarte allegedly sexually abused Kane Velasquez's son. He's going to stand his own trial, which will take place next year. But I think there was a lot of sympathy for that because at the end of the day, Kane does have a family that's been without

him since the day he got arrested on February 28. They've been without him. He's been in jail. ever since then. He has a four-year-old son, you know, and a daughter who've been without him. And I think there was just sympathy there, realizing so much time has passed and his son was traumatized. And they want to return him home for the time being until he stands trial. And I think the judge, judging by his comments, you know, basically saying, you know, he's more or less sympathized with that. You know, not that, you know, he condemned the actions, you know, and basically said that, you know, he also, again, as I mentioned earlier, denied the motion to dismiss the premeditated attempted murder. charge, which, you know, that, if convicted, comes as a potential of a life sentence.

So he's not, you know, discounting the seriousness of the charges. But I do believe after eight months in jail, I think he had a little bit of sympathy for Kane's family just being without him this entire time. And, you know, he's going to go to trial, you know, he's already pled not guilty. They're not, you know, letting him go by any stretch of the imagination. He has a slew of conditions, you know, he has to abide by to maintain his freedom for now. But I think that was it. you know, it was just a lot of time has passed.

And basically the judge also said that he's had an outpouring of support from letters, you know, things that have been mentioned previously, people like Dana White, all these people had written letters in support of Kane, the community, people had written letters of support for Kane. And I think he basically, you know, more or less, you know, understanding. There's also a celebrity factor here. You know, Kane's not going to go anywhere now without being recognized. He probably couldn't go very far, you know, in his own community as it stood.

So I think those all played a factor. And again, he's been in jail for eight months already. I think, you know, pending this trial, they wanted to let him go home and be with his family for a little while. You know, that's the way I took it. That's the way the judge kind of said it. So one of the great things about this podcast is we actually have an attorney. Technically, yes. Technically, a guy who went to law school.

So, Jed, I'm dying to hear your take on this. I think it's important to note that this guy is a different judge, right? and the previous judge that denied bail. It's very important to note that I'm going to issue a formal disclaimer because I think I'm legally supposed to do this. I am no longer licensed to practice law. I have let my bar card lapse because that is not the profession I work in. And I have never been licensed to practice law on the state of California.

So those are two very important things to get out front. I think it's obviously a huge difference. because as much as we want to live in this world where we believe that the law is concrete and there's a very clear structure, the law is in some ways. It's also very malleable, but it's enforced by people and people are different. And people have different ways of interpreting things. And there is so much interplay here that can allow you see a lot of this just in general with people venue shopping cases because some cases, some courts.

some judges will be more lenient or more sympathetic to their standing. I think getting a new judge here certainly had some. I also do think the time just plays a bit of a factor. Stephen, I think I'm trying to remember exactly. We talked about this offline when the first bail requests got denied. And I think I came to you and said something like, I'm a little bit surprised that they denied it for all the reasons that they've released it now or that they've allowed it now.

I can understand certainly from a legal standpoint because a thing we haven't explicitly mentioned and that I do want to bring about right now is the charges that are facing Kane. He does have the premeditated murder and that results from allegedly here chasing down this man and firing rounds of his gun into a truck carrying not just this individual but two other individuals. Over several miles and in a high-speed car chase that at the minimum, like potentially endangered other people in the community. These are very serious charges, and we can't make light of that or not recognize that. But I do think certainly some time away gives you a little bit more room to breathe, a little bit more opportunity to say,

well, he clearly presented a danger in the immediate aftermath because of the charges that are laid against him. But with some time, and the quote here from Judge Bokenegra, which I think is the most instructive, at least of his opinion on the matter. And maybe to the truth of the fact here is, Mr. Velasquez, I would not release you if I was not convinced that finally a release at this time eight months later that you would be a danger to Harry Galarte primarily, Patricia Galarte, or Paul Bender, or the public. What the judge is saying is you've spent eight months in jail. I think you recognize the seriousness of what is going on here and that releasing you back into public is not going to create a severe danger, especially with these restrictions. I think those are the big ones here.

We could get into a whole separate argument that has really no bearing in the MMA sphere about cash bail in America and why it's fraught with problems. But the big ones here is the monitoring, the mental health treatment. These are tangible things. And certainly the monitoring is the biggest one because that in a vacuum, Kane very likely, assuming the circumstances that we are all making the assumptions are true. There's a big allegedly, because none of this has been proven.

But assuming several of these circumstances, is Kane doesn't in general pose a public risk. He more acutely poses a risk to set specific individuals and kind of with the things they've outlined here should mitigate that pretty effectively. But I'm with you. I was a little bit surprised that they let him go this time just because it hasn't been a consistent denial of this. And so I am led to believe the simplest answer is usually the correct one that a new judge kind of came in and took pity. more or less in this instance. And how does he end up in this position?

What do you mean? How does Judge Bocanegra end up in this position? How do we get judge, is it just a simple matter of scheduling like the court, the court calendar? I'm not, well, it could be that.

I'm honestly not sure because I have not paid that much attention to this case. I don't think, because I feel like we would have covered it, that they would have asked for recusal from a prior judge or anything like this, this could simply just be an issue of calendar just right because this is this has been ongoing for eight months um and so and that is kind of one of the things here when we're talking about cases like this right like this is this is eight months and we're in pretrial like we're not even to the whole

enchilada and frankly and some of that's because of continuances for various reasons it is sort of how cases work in the american jurisprudence system at this point like they you can kick the can down the road and I'm going to make an analogy that maybe isn't great, but we're going to do it anyway because I already started. Back in my legal days, one of the first things they tell you in law school, which they don't tell you, but you kind of, they sort of tell you, is how to understand the game of the court, because in some ways that is what it is.

And specifically, I'm going to use the instance of a DUI. So I know several people who have gotten pulled over for DUIs, and I have given out or I have told them if you are not sure, if you are 100% you haven't been drinking, I don't blow into the breathalyzer. There's no reason to do that, right? Or you can blow into it if you absolutely haven't been because you're fine. There's no reason not to.

If you have been, don't drive. You should never ever drink and drive. It's a really, really horrible thing. but in a legal sense, don't blow into the breathalyzer because that gives them concrete evidence that you were drinking at the time. Now, most state laws allow you to be arrested for refusing the breathalyzer. But that still is not a fact of the ground. And the reality is your DUI case should you choose to go to trial with it probably won't happen for three years. Like it's the courts are too backlog, especially I'll be, I stopped doing.

law prior to COVID, I know that the whole COVID thing really backlogged our court system by a million. So I don't even know what things look like on the ground there right now. But if you push something off for two or three years, concrete evidence gets lessened. That's how time works. And so something like a raw number of here's a breathalyzer, it was 1.2 or whatever. Like that's, you can't argue that fact. But there's not that it goes away. time makes things easier to stomach a lot in the legal sense a lot of ways and I think to some extent

that that's kind of what happened here. So, Damon, what comes next having been in the, watch the proceedings today, did they give you an indication of sort of what's next in the trial, what we can look forward to? The next hearing, it's another pre-trial hearing and arraignment pre-trial hearing is going to take place on November 21st. That will be his next official time in court and Kane will have to appear in court. They haven't set a trial date yet. This is still going through pretrial motions and everything that's happening, just like these last two days were.

I mean, at this point, you know, we're pretty much, I mean, unless they reach a plea agreement, we're pretty much destined to go to trial. How soon that will happen? I couldn't even begin to say this has already been stretched out, as we mentioned, eight months just to get to this point. So November 21st will be the next time that Kane will have to be in court. Until then, you know, he will be at home of this family.

But yeah, so that's the next stage. I wish I could tell you exactly what's going to happen to that particular pre-trial hearing, but the last two days have been kind of bizarre because yesterday was spent, literally the entire day was spent talking to four different police officers, two from the Morgan Hill Police and two from the San Jose police. And they were just the responding officers, the people who responded to the 911 calls about the high-speed car chase that went 11 miles and reached over 100 miles per hour, allegedly.

Um, there was another one who was at the scene who had retrieved the, uh, weapon, the 40 caliber weapon from inside of Kane's, um, Ford F 250 truck. Uh, there was another, uh, who was there who actually, you know, placed Kane under arrest when he, when he stopped and was, uh, taken into custody. And there was another who actually had spoken to Paul Bender, uh, who was the alleged victim in the case. So like, it was just a lot of, a lot of question and back and forth with, uh, prosecutor Aaron French. and then the judge, excuse me, the attorney Mark Garagos for Kane Velasquez. So that was a law yesterday. And then today it was basically closing arguments about, you know, the pre-trial hearing. And then those two motions from Garigos, which again was the motion to dismiss the charge of premeditated attempted murder, which was denied.

And then the motion for bail, which, again, kind of surprising considering, you know, judges, I believe it was Shalala Brown had denied it multiple times in the past. and more or less called Cain a clear and present danger to the public. But after eight months in jail, you know, Judge Bocanegra disagreed in terms of the danger that Cain currently represents in his own words. And that led to his bail, which again, I'll be honest, like the way everything had been going, the way that the judge had been ruling and the way the judge had, you know, listening to arguments. And again, I'm not a lawyer, but, you know, I feel like I have a good enough grasp of the legal system when when you're talking about objections and things like that happening in the court. It seemed like, you know, Aaron French was making a compelling argument in his side. And with the bail hearing, you know, it seemed like he was just arguing the same things that have been argued the last four times. But again, Judge Bocanagra had a different opinion on the present, the danger that Kane represented to the public.

and now allowing him to not only go home and see his family, but also, you know, demanding, you know, the counseling and the treatment for wellness and the wellness center and things like that. I mean, I think those are important things to note here, not necessarily his punishment, but more that Kane is going to get treatment. You know, this isn't just a free and clear release. He gets to go on bail. Like, he has to abide by a lot of rules from the court to maintain his bail.

And he is going to get treatment. He's going to get treatment for that. So I think that's important as well. I think the counseling for parents of sexually abused children has to be noted here. I think that's so important because that's a, I mean, it's a horrific, horrific situation to be away. Again, none of this, none of this, by the way, let me make sure I'm being clear about this. None of this, I'm saying I'm giving Kane a pass for what he did. I'm just saying, like, when you take that out of it and you just realize, like, at homey as a four-year-old son who's been sexually abused and he's been without his dad for the past eight months, I get the trauma of that.

And I understand Judge Bokenegger's ruling in that regard to saying, this kid has already been through a lot, you know, there's a chance. If he's convicted, his dad may be taken away forever. I mean, he could get life in prison. There's a reality that happens. In this situation, I kind of get it. I'm like, there is a, you have to take the entire situation into account when you realize why Judge Bokenegro made the decision he made, in my opinion.

No, I do think that was always the most compelling. Compelling maybe isn't the word I feel the best using, but it is the one. that jumps to mind, the most compelling argument for his release is that he has a young son who has allegedly been sexually abused. And having being separated from that creates a not great situation in general. It certainly makes a bad situation worse. Before we get out of here, that's the update. I don't personally have anything else to say here. But Stephen, Damon, do you have anything that you'd like to close with before we exit with this? I think you referenced our offline conversation before, and it's interesting to me to see something break in Kane's favor after something not breaking in his favor so frequently.

I really thought initially that the public perception of this case would play a huge part in how it was adjudicated, whereas you, I think were coming from a letter of the law standpoint and looking at the facts on their face. the allegations on their face, it very much looked, it looked very bad. And I was trying to sort of take into account like the environment in which it takes place in. And I think that this, what happened today could be an indication that maybe this will have or will play more of a factor than we initially suspected, given what had happened in the first parts of this. We are just at the start of this, but it just seems like Garagos is already doing a good enough job, just hammering away at every possible opening. You know, he's a high price lawyer.

Everybody knows Mark Garagos, basically. You get what you, you know, if you get him on your team, you've kind of bought a lot of credibility in certain circles. So, yeah, it's, it's, my initial take was like, this just needs to go to trial because look at the environment that it takes place and look at the support that Kane has from the community to look at his celebrity and look at the resources that he brings to the table. So I think we should clarify. It's too early to really declare this like a big turning point, but it's very interesting

in the context of where things have been. Absolutely. Calling this a turning point would certainly be premature until basically until we know the resolution right but i it is pretty unequivocal to say this is the first real win cane velasquez has had uh with regard to this matter you know he has faced a lot of negatives up and down um we're not going to opine on why but it has just been he has taken a lot of ls through the pretrial stuff this is his first very clear win he gets to go home. He gets to be with his family. He gets to help to prepare his own defense as this will. By all rights, it seems like there's not going to end up being a plea here. I certainly thought that that was going to be the most likely outcome to this was a plea down to lesser charges. But

based on everything going on, it seems like they are content to fight this in the court of law, have his day in court. And that's where it looks like we're headed sometime next year. potentially even, you know, 2025, 2024, not 2025. That'd be a little long. Let me, let me, I just want to throw one more thing here before we go. And again, I want to make sure I'm painting an accurate picture because, again, I want to, I want to be clear in no way, shape, or form am I, you know, not like, am I placing judgment on what Kane did right or wrong?

I'm not looking at it from that, just to paint a picture for the listeners, like, who didn't see this in court today, when the judge handed down the order, now Kane was wearing a mask and he was wearing an orange jumpsuit, so you could really see his reaction, but you can feel a sense of relief in his voice. He spoke for the first time today when the judge said, you know, all these things he said to him, he said, don't prove me wrong. And, and Kane spoke back and said, I won't, your honor. And at the end, Kane also said, you know, thank you, yes, thank you, you know, to the

thing. And you could see there was just a sense of relief on his face. His judge kind of, his lawyer kind of patted him on the back. You could see like he finally had a sense of relief in this moment. Somebody came over and hug Kane. I don't know. I may have been his wife. I'm not 100% sure because it was kind of off camera a little bit.

You can see Kane. I couldn't really see the person hugging him. But there wasn't a sense of relief. And there have been people in court, you know, this entire time we've heard about it before. I know Daniel Cormney had been there in previous hearings. I believe Javier Mendez was there today. A lot of people from the MMA community have shown support. And again, I'm not passing judgment.

Good or bad, not saying anything about that. But again, just in the terms of the emotion of the moment. you could see just a brief moment of levity in that. And you could see the relief on Kane's face and his lawyer's face that he was going to get to go home and be with this family. Listen, none of this is, none of this ultimately is his son's fault, you know, and so you do feel for that. I think there was an emotional factor to that. And listen, the trial, the jury will ultimately decide the fate of what happens from here, assuming it all goes to trial. But for now, you know, I wanted to mention that just because it was.

you can see it like on his face like you can see like the the happiness that he will get to go and probably hug his son for the first time since February of course uh and as I said before you know there he's he's taking a lot of bells and this is far from over but certainly the first big win for Kane Velasquez today in court he will be going home to see his family uh for the foreseeable future until this finally gets resolved that is it uh thank you for tuning in for this Stephen Morocco, thank you for all the great work you've done this case up to now. Damon, thanks for sitting through this entire pretrial and keeping us up to date. You can stay tuned, stay locked to mvayfinding.com.

We will continue to have updates on this case as it plays out. See you guys next time.